


the king is dead; long live the king

by andthentheybow



Series: of false gods and fake kings and everything in between [3]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Eret Redemption (Video Blogging RPF), Eret-centric, Found Family, Gen, Minecraft IRL, Non-Linear Narrative, They/Them Pronouns for Eret (Video Blogging RPF)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:42:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27529405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andthentheybow/pseuds/andthentheybow
Summary: they are the past, present, and future, a multitude of moments contained in their never-changing gaze. their eyes glow whiter than the dawns of time, and sometimes they wonder how it got to this point.it gets lonely being king and having nothing to show for it.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & Eret (Video Blogging RPF), Eret & Floris | Fundy, Eret & Jschlatt (Video Blogging RPF), Eret & Niki | Nihachu, Eret & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Eret & Wilbur Soot
Series: of false gods and fake kings and everything in between [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2001208
Comments: 35
Kudos: 256





	the king is dead; long live the king

**Author's Note:**

> don't be creepy about content creators, these are my interpretations of their personas, if they're uncomfortable this will be deleted, etc etc

somehow, they end up here. legs crossed on the couch in the basement of their home, two sleeping figures curled up next to them. they refuse to hide, but first and foremost they must protect, they must take care of their loved ones. as much as they want to be marching through the streets with their sword drawn, their priority is here.

even though they are the traitor, they have deemed themself the caretaker. the protector. they are the one that made sure everyone was eating during the war, they are the one that made sure injuries were bandaged and beds were slept in and hoarse throats were given cups of tea. their arms are the ones where comfort is sought, and so they will provide.

but ender if they don’t want to be storming the white house and tearing it down brick by brick, just like schlatt tore down the walls. they want to burn manberg to the ground just like fundy did the flag. they want to look schlatt in the eyes as they run their sword through him so that he knows he made a mistake.

they are the traitor. they are the revolutionary. they are the provider. they are the caretaker. they are the protector. they are the king.

they are the king, and this is their castle, and these are their people. they are the king. they are the king. they are the king.

***&***

they are the past, present, and future, a multitude of moments contained in their never-changing gaze. their eyes glow whiter than the dawns of time, and sometimes they wonder how it got to this point.

it gets lonely being king and having nothing to show for it. of course, they’ve got their castle, halls upon halls of carefully crafted material. they have their crown, nestled carefully on their head. they have their faithful sunglasses, never leaving their face. they have their pranks with fundy and their hugs with tubbo and their picnics with niki. they have their tentative friendship with dream, their fragile alliance with the rest of dream’s team.

alright, so they have a fair amount of good things in their life. but they’ve lost any relationships they had with wilbur and tommy. they’ve lost the right to step foot in l’manberg. they’ve lost the right to consider themself loyal. but that’s all the past. the war for l’manberg is the past, their betrayal is the past, their pranks and friendships and days of relaxation are the past.

the future- well, they hope it’ll be filled with pranks and friendships and days of relaxation. but right now is the present, and they’ll deal with the consequences of the past and hopes for the future another day. right now, they allow their eyes to glow a little brighter as they wait for the election results to come in.

they’re supporting fundy and niki. who else would they support? despite their betrayal of l’manberg, they stayed on good terms with fundy, letting the prank war continue even with everything else going on. they love niki platonically, the two of them remaining the best of friends. who else would they support? wilbur, who they betrayed? quackity, who they barely know? schlatt? ender below, could you imagine them supporting schlatt?

schlatt wins.

somehow, they’re not surprised.

***&***

there’s not much that can surprise them these days. there’s not much that’s ever been able to surprise them, really. it’s not like the glowing white eyes allow them to see into the past or the future. the glowing white eyes are just glowing white eyes. if they’re a little bit not human, no one ever mentions it.

they’re just very, very used to being disappointed. they’re used to things not going the way they should. they meet with dream and he talks about the way things are supposed to be and they just nod along. the way things are supposed to be and the way things are are usually two very different things.

they know that dream isn’t human, even if no one else does. they never mention it outright, but dream hides his eyes for the same reason they do. he pretends that the mask is for the scars running over both his eyes, across his nose, up and down his cheeks. the real reason is because his emerald green eyes glow with the knowledge of the past, the present, and the future. how could he be anything but a god?

they’re not a god. they’ve never been a god. they know that role isn’t theirs to take, so they don’t take it. they don’t want to take it- they could never handle the pressure, of being responsible for an entire world. they can barely handle the pressure of being responsible for their friends.

dream can. dream plays the role of god beautifully, they think, and since they’re the only one that sees it, their opinion is the correct one. they almost tell him this, once, but they catch themself. based on dream’s smirk, he gets it anyway.

“do you ever get tired of this, eret?” dream asks them once. they shrug. 

“tired of living like this?” dream continues, gesturing around the stone walls of the castle. “doesn’t it get lonely, being king?”

they shrug again. “it doesn’t bother me,” they say, and it’s the truth. dream leaves it at that.

***&***

schlatt is standing at the doors of their castle and they are glaring back.

“we’re just thinking of expanding and we wanted to get your thoughts,” schlatt says with his signature smirk. sometimes they want to grab him by the horns and stuff his head so far up his ass that he-

“no,” they say, monotone, arms crossed. quackity shifts nervously behind schlatt. george looks completely bored. tubbo is pretending not to pay attention.

“no?” schlatt asks, one eyebrow raised dangerously. they aren’t phased.

“no,” they repeat. “that directly violates the treaty between dream and l’manberg.”

“it’s called manberg now,” schlatt says with a grin.

“still violates the treaty,” they say with a shrug. “unless you want to piss dream off, i’d advise you not to do it.” because yeah, they’re the king of dream’s land, but everyone knows that dream is truly in charge, and no one wants to piss dream off.

***&***

tubbo sneaks into their castle sometimes in the dead of night. they’ve gotten used to being shaken awake in the middle of the night by a shivering figure, and they gather all the blankets from their bed and sit on the roof for hours at a time with the kid pressed against them. in the morning they carry him back to the white house and george turns a blind eye as they slip inside, and they’re out before schlatt ever notices.

they came to see tubbo as a little brother during the war. tommy and fundy both had wilbur to look up to, and all of wilbur’s gaze was focused on them. tubbo needed a figure like that, too, and they gladly provided.

“eret,” tubbo says now, in the dead of night, the stars and the moon and the lights from manberg shining. he needed to get out of the white house after a very long day, and they’re both ignoring the purple and red beginning to shine around his left eye. “do you think we can ever go back?”

“no,” they reply.

“eret,” tubbo said then, in the same position, high up on the walls of l’manberg, after another long day of gathering supplies for the revolution. “do you think we can ever go back?”

“no,” they replied.

both times they were telling the truth.

***&***

they don’t make a habit out of lying. contrary to popular belief, they don’t actually enjoy it. they turned traitor, sure, but they knew that no matter how many times they were all killed, the revolution would never stop fighting, never give up, never give in. those are the roles that l’manbergians play: the heroes, the fighters, the underdogs.

their role is simpler. they are the false king, with their false crown and their false throne and their very real castle. when dream comes to them with the offer of being a true king, or as true a king they can get- well, they take it. that’s the way it’s supposed to be, isn’t it?

dream is playing the villain here, and they both know it. they can choose their own role, choose to be a hero or villain, loyal or traitor.

“i’ll let you be the king,” is what dream offers, and they know damn well that they’ll never be king. that’s dream, isn’t it, it’s always been dream.

they accept.

it was never meant to be.

***&***

“down with the revolution, boys,” they crow, and they watch the future die.

after, when the dust clears, sapnap pats them on the shoulder. george offers a half-smile, half-grimace. punz sends them finger-guns, and dream wraps an arm around their shoulders.

“welcome to the right side,” dream says, and by the look in his eyes, he knows that these are the roles they’ve been given. green through mask meet white through shades, and the two come to a silent agreement, then and there. no matter what roles they play, they support each other, the true god and the false king, eyes glowing in the dead of night.

***&***

eyes glowing in the dead of night. eyes glowing in a tunnel, in a ravine, far underground, with clear signs of life.

they exchange a look with bad, who’s slightly behind him. bad’s eyes are also glowing, but bad is just like that. just another thing that they don’t talk about.

“i think this is pogtopia,” bad says softly, and as far as they know bad is technically on schlatt’s side, but they really doubt he’s going to say anything. he’s got a knife in his grip that he’s shifting from hand to hand nervously, and they tentatively take another step forward into the light.

down one hallway, roughly carved into the rock, they see what looks like a potato farm. and a not-quite familiar, but distinctly recognizable pig hybrid.

they mutter curses and back up quickly, trying to get out of sight, but they know they’ve been seen. bad looks confused, then concerned, as technoblade cautiously pokes one head out of the tunnel. they make eye contact with him, and then they wordlessly offer him a potato. he snorts and allows them to toss it to him, and then disappears back down the tunnel.

“what just happened?” bad hisses. they laugh.

later, they’re half expecting the news that pogtopia’s been found out. the news never comes. they see bad a few days later, and when the two get a moment alone, they ask in hushed whispers why bad hasn’t said anything.

bad just shrugs. “why do i need to?” he asks.

“you’re on schlatt’s side, aren’t you?” they question. “he wants to know where pogtopia is.”

“if he wants to know that badly, he’ll figure it out,” he replies. “it’s really none of my business.”

weeks later, they get news from fundy that bad has been hanging out around pogtopia more often. they’re not surprised.

not much can surprise them anymore, after all.

***&***

niki is probably the only one who can. niki, who enters dream’s world and immediately sides with l’manberg. niki, who knows they are a traitor and loves them anyway. niki, who screams in schlatt’s face as they hold her back.

schlatt is standing in niki’s bakery the same way he stands outside their castle, with tubbo uncomfortable at his side and quackity at his heel. this time george is nowhere to be seen. schlatt doesn’t seem that bothered by it. they were stopping by, checking in in the days after the election, and now schlatt is here and they are standing behind the counter, one hand on the sword at their side, just in case things get violent.

“you’re what,” niki says quietly, her voice low, dangerous. they don’t think they’ve heard her this angry since the pet war.

“raising your taxes,” schlatt repeats cheekily. “just yours, mind you, i don’t want anyone getting the wrong idea.” he adds this while looking at them. they shrug. schlatt has no fucking power over them- they may be a false king, but they’re still an ender-damned king. schlatt is just a tyrant.

“fuck you,” niki spits out. quackity’s hand drifts toward his sword. they grab her arm, and she lets them pull her back. she knows how bad attacking the president would be. “are you fucking kidding me? i’m the only one in this city that provides any food, and you’re raising my taxes?”

“you’re a well-known sympathizer of the exiled bastards,” quackity points out.

“i hope you starve,” niki snarls.

and with that, the president leaves. niki’s taxes have been raised. they doubt she’ll pay them, but hey, at least schlatt tried. they let niki curl into their chest and guide her to the back room and hold her as she sobs, and forty minutes later tubbo sneaks in the back door with a fresh bruise forming on his cheek.

“i’m sorry,” he whispers as he slips into their hug, curled in the corner of the kitchen. “i tried to talk him out of it, i really did.”

“i know, tubbo,” niki sniffs, gripping his hands. they keep their arms tight around both of them, their breathing steady, calm for these two, their family.

***&***

their family: tommy, wilbur, tubbo. they join l’manberg and wilbur writes them into the national anthem, laughing as he composes the lyrics. they don’t really care about the drug trade that’s going on, or whatever it is. they just know that these stupid boys will not be taking care of themselves, and they care about the three of them, so they’re going to join the war. fundy joins shortly after, wilbur adopting him soon after, but wilbur’s no father figure. as much as he tries, he’s running a revolution, and he has no time to look out for his son or his younger brother. so they take it upon themself to do it.

they build the walls and they gather supplies and they make sure everyone is eating and sleeping and staying hydrated. they patch up injuries that are bad, but not enough to warrant a respawn. they give hugs when the respawns do occur and someone wakes up screaming in bed with all of the pain but none of the blood. tubbo is the one that’s killed the most often, which isn’t surprising but isn’t comforting. even if tommy is the youngest, they’re all in agreement that tubbo is the softest, tubbo is the one in need of protection. or at least, they and fundy and tommy are all in agreement. tubbo thinks it’s stupid and wilbur doesn’t have the time to be worrying about anyone but himself and maybe tommy.

they can see the way it hurts fundy, how wilbur never pays attention to him. wilbur is his father, he should be taking care of him, but any spare energy he has is spent on tommy, tommy, tommy. they try to distract fundy the best they can, and they think maybe it works.

***&***

the burning of the flag proves that it didn’t. niki sends a message over the communicators and they come to manberg as fast as they can to find the l’manberg flag on fire and fundy holding a torch. niki is screaming and they hold her back, to keep her from attacking fundy or running directly into the blaze they don’t know.

but fundy turns back to them and the fire is reflected in his eyes, and they know, they know that this is because of wilbur. fundy doesn’t want to hurt niki or tommy or even tubbo, fundy wants to hurt wilbur. he may be on pogtopia’s side (even if they’re the only one he told), but he’s doing this to attack wilbur. because being ignored by your father still hurts, and after everything, fundy is completely entitled to his anger.

so they do their best to hold niki back as she screams. the fire is spreading, it’s raging, and fundy is just standing there laughing, and their sunglasses have slipped to the side and they know their eyes are visible but they can’t find it in them to care. they know that dream is around here somewhere, watching, and they pray to the god that no one believes in to do something, do something, do something, but dream does nothing, doesn’t even show his face.

so they do their best to hold niki back as she screams. she’s screaming not because of the flag that she worked so damn hard on, but because this is signifying, truly signifying, the end of an era. the walls are gone, the flag is gone, l’manberg is gone. l’manberg is gone. l’manberg is gone.

***&***

l’manberg is free, and they’re sitting on a hill, overlooking the city. wilbur and fundy are somewhere, possibly negotiating final terms with dream and his crew, possibly just having the father-son bonding they’re never really able to have. tommy is somewhere showing jack manifold around. they’re sitting on a hill, and niki has joined them with fresh baked goods, and they set up a picnic, the first of many.

the two are talking quietly to each other when they see a short figure coming up the hill toward them. tubbo smiles hesitantly and waves. niki waves enthusiastically back. they’re more cautious, knowing tubbo hasn’t liked them much since everything that went on with the betrayal, but he’s got a picnic blanket in his arms and a jar of honey in his hands.

and so the three of them have a picnic, and later wilbur calls for niki and she leaves, leaving just them and tubbo. and they talk, for a long time, about betrayal and hope and redemption. it ends with them offering tubbo a place to stay if he ever needs it, and tubbo hesitating before diving into his arms. the sun is setting and for a moment, everything is good.

***&***

tubbo may have forgiven them, but wilbur and tommy have not. most days, they doubt that wilbur and tommy ever will. it’s alright, they suppose. they deserve it. they betrayed l’manberg, and they will pay the price.

it doesn’t stop them from wanting to help. they want redemption, sure, but they’re also the king and they don’t trust schlatt or his intentions and pogtopia clearly has the best chance of taking him down, even before dream sides with them. so they continue to help from the sidelines and eventually start just giving things to tubbo and niki and letting pogtopia think that it comes from the two of them, rather than the false king in their castle with their watchtowers overlooking manberg.

they keep an eye on manberg and pass any news that tubbo and niki might have missed. they have spies in schlatt’s administration and spies in schlatt’s citizens and spies with an outside perspective so they’re all set, really, on the spies front. dream asks them why they don’t just go to pogtopia, since they clearly know where it is (wilbur isn’t as hidden as he’d like to be; he thinks that no one knows and in reality half the world does). they just shrug and say that they’re better off here.

here, in their castle, where they can pace their empty halls and talk to no one but themself and build higher, higher, higher. when they get sad they make more rainbows and that makes them a little happier, sure, but they’d still just really like to gain back wilbur and tommy’s trust.

wilbur goes off the deep end so they doubt anything matters to him anymore. tommy isn’t really in a position to be denying help, so it’s a good thing that it’s coming from pretty much everyone. they hear the chaos about fundy finally revealing the truth and dream revealing that he’s switched sides and there’s another traitor among them, “someone more surprising than eret,” and they never really thought that their betrayal was a surprise because nothing surprises them anymore.

they’re a little pissed at dream for switching sides, but hey, the true god and the false king agreed to support each other no matter what, so they’re not going to say anything. they’re sure george and sapnap are pleased.

***&***

‘can we talk’ is what the whisper from fundy says, followed by a set of coordinates. they sigh before going, sword strapped to their side, because of course when fundy asks they’ll be there. they meet on top of a hill, far away from their castle and l’manberg and dream’s land. the sun is setting and the fox hybrid is shifting nervously from foot to foot. when he sees them, something in his gaze hardens with a sort of angsty determination, and his movements settle.

they have their sword drawn, because they aren’t quite sure what’s going to go down, and fundy spreads his hands to show that he’s weaponless. they plant their sword in the ground and wait for him to speak.

“i don’t want to take schlatt’s side,” fundy says quietly. they wait for the ‘but,’ because of course there’s going to be a ‘but.’ there always is.

“but tubbo is staying to spy for wilbur, and it’s only been a couple of days, but i’ve seen how schlatt works. someone needs to be watching out for the kid. and i’ll be better off as a spy if no one else knows about it, so that word can’t get back to schlatt.”

that is… a considerably longer ‘but’ than they were anticipating. still, they’re not surprised.

“why are you telling me, then?” they ask.

“if something goes down, there needs to be someone that knew,” fundy replies. “i’ll be journaling, and i’ll hide the journals. you know where i’ll keep them.”

they do. they do know.

“and i need to know, eret- if things get crazy- that you’ll have my back. you’ll be on my side.”

dream’s side. tubbo’s side. niki’s side. wilbur’s side. fundy’s side.

they’re all fighting for the same thing. they’re all fighting for l’manberg. what difference does it make?

“of course i will,” they say. the false king in their castle, taking no sides and every side. ender, these stupid wars are getting to their head.

“thank you,” fundy says with a nod. “stay safe, eret.”

“you, too.”

fundy leaves. they stay a while longer, watching the sun set, and when it’s long past the horizon, they grab their sword out of the ground and head back home.

***&***

they meet fundy shortly after they join the war, when the fox hybrid crashes into the meeting room while they’re in the middle of talking to wilbur. he calls wilbur his father and asks something about fish and then runs out of the room again.

they don’t ask how it all works- fundy was born in l’manberg to wilbur and a salmon named sally and now he’s a grown man and they really don’t want to know how any of it works, so they just sort of leave it be. fundy, for his part, also just leaves it be.

but they become fast friends with fundy, pranking the hell out of each other to keep the situation as light as it can be. they’re prepared to defend fundy with their life, and they know that fundy feels the same. fundy’s the only one of them to be born in l’manberg, and he doesn’t let any of them forget it.

“i was born in l’manberg, and i’ll die for l’manberg,” he jokes a bit too often for it to be an actual joke. they’re a bit concerned, but it’s to be expected; fundy was born into war, and he hasn’t known anything other than war.

that doesn’t mean they always get along. they drop their voice when a prank toes the line between funny and frustrating, and laugh at the squeak fundy’s voice gets. when fundy finally convinces dream to go on a date with him, they laugh for a good five minutes straight. when fundy burns the flag down, a little part of them loses trust in the fox, even if they know what side he’s truly on.

***&***

everyone knows what side the false king is on. they watch from their towers and their castle and the streets of manberg and everyone knows what side they’re on. their regal poise and their hidden eyes fool absolutely no one.

so they are in their castle, alone. they stride down cold, empty halls and let their thoughts race behind them, and sometimes they take off the sunglasses and look in the mirror and they don’t recognize the person staring back. they are the false king of the world, with the title and the land and the castle and none of the power, and it’s just the way they like it. their eyes glow in the dead of night and in the middle of the day and they put the glasses back on and pretend they can’t see that they are something other. the king is dead; long live the king.

the false king is in their castle, and they feel like they are hiding, and they are alone.

***&***

they are in their castle, but they are not hiding, and they are not alone. they are protecting the two people curled against them, who are waking up now. tubbo has scars running up and down his whole body, horrible burns that he’s already moved past. the circles under niki’s eyes have never been more prominent. the festival has come and gone and tommy still thinks that wilbur can be saved, but niki and tubbo needed a night away, just one night, with their older sibling protecting them.

they will provide that. they will always provide that.

niki is waking up now, stretching a bit, and she smiles, looking more rested than she has since this whole thing started. her movement jostles tubbo a little bit, and the boy cracks one eye open a moment later.

“thank you, eret,” he says quietly, stretching out to grab one of niki’s hands. “we should probably get back soon, but i don’t want to go.”

“it’s all for a good cause,” they say, and they’re sure they sound tired. niki and tubbo both look up to them. “it’s for l’manberg. for our lost city.”

“i don’t care about l’manberg,” tubbo says suddenly, his tone switching quickly. “i care about tommy. i care about wilbur, and dream. i care about you guys. not l’manberg.” this does not surprise them.

“it’s never been about l’manberg,” niki echoes. “it’s always been about us. about family.”

and this- this does surprise them. once again, niki is the only one that can do it. niki is the one that has been fighting against schlatt openly this whole time, and they always thought it was about l’manberg. it was for l’manberg. it was so wilbur and tommy could return to the land they’d been banished from.

but it was never about the land, was it? it wasn’t about the place. it was about the people. it was about their exile from their people. and with this shocking revelation, they begin to understand. 

they’re not fighting for l’manberg. they’re not! it’s taken them this long to see, this long to realize- even if everyone else is, they have never been fighting for l’manberg. l’manberg means nothing. they’re not fighting for l’manberg, they’re fighting for their family. 

they’re not fighting to regain l’manberg, they’re fighting to regain the trust of wilbur and tommy. they’re not fighting to protect l’manberg, they’re fighting to protect niki and tubbo. they’re not fighting to defend l’manberg, they’re fighting to defend fundy and dream.

traitor. revolutionary. provider. caretaker. protector. for their family. the false king in their castle, fighting for their family.

niki reaches up and slides the sunglasses off their face, and they let her. she must see something different in their eyes, because she hums softly. tubbo grips their hand tightly.

“does that surprise you, eret?” she asks, and they know that she knows what they’re thinking.

“it does,” they say, because it does.

“but do you understand?”

“i do,” they say, because they do.

**Author's Note:**

> kudos/comments/etc fuel me :))


End file.
